Swan Song

Chapter Forty Two

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Walking back into the Paragon and floating back to Earth was all a blur for Sophie. She felt like she was sleepwalking the entire time, but if she was in a dream, it wasn't one she wanted to wake up from.

Around her, people laughed and cheered and hugged, but Sophie was oblivious to it all- as per usual- as she dazedly thought We won. We won. We won. We won! The world turned upside down.

Sophie stumbled out of the Paragon onto the ground, tripping, as always. Keefe caught her. "Glad to see that some things never change, Foster," he teased.

"Oh, shut up," Sophie mumbled, leaning into him. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and her face grew to the temperature of Everblaze.

The thought of Everblaze made her think of Fintan, and her mood was dampened as she remembered what he had done to Linh. Marella, judging by her tear streaked face and frantic searching for a leaping crystal, hadn't been able to forget, and neither had Tam. Sophie hoped she was okay... and reminded herself over and over that Elwin was a genius.

As Marella and Tam leapt away, Sophie looked around at all of her friends. Biana and Fitz were locked in a discussion about who it was that Alvar was in love with ("Come on, Fitzypoo, it was obviously Ruy-") and only stopped bickering when Della ordered Biana to go to Elwin. Sophie privately agreed- the bruise on Biana's forehead didn't look great.

Dex was greeted with confetti from the triplets, who were berating him for "beating the bad guys without us!" Dex rolled his eyes, but Sophie saw his dimples making an appearance.

Miracle of miracles, Jensi and Stina were acting civil to one another, judging by the lack of explosives. Maruca had always been friends with Stina, but she was acting polite towards Jensi as well.

"Foster?" Keefe said, reminding Sophie that she was a physical being in his arms, rather than an intangible observer of her friends.

"Mmm?"

"I think this is the first time in a while that the emotions I'm getting from you have been genuinely good. And not, like, insane with anxiety or heartbroken or wanting to murder someone," Keefe noted.

Sophie trusted the Empath. "It feels like it."

He adjusted his grip on her slightly, and Sophie remembered that one of his arms was probably broken, definitely injured. "You should probably get Elwin to look at that."

"Eh," Keefe shrugged.

"Keefe."

"Foster."

"Go get a physician to look at your clearly damaged arm," she ordered.

Keefe sighed. "Fine. I can't disobey the Mysterious Miss F."

Feeling bold, she gave him a quick kiss before he glittered away. Kissing her boyfriend(!) was becoming almost a regular enough occurrence that she didn't feel the need to squeal for five hours afterwards... only two or three hours.

Grady and Edaline came over- Grady very clearly trying hard not to comment on Sophie's affectionate behavior towards That Boy- and hugged her. She collapsed into them, giving her parents even more of her weight than she had given to Keefe.

"We're so proud of you," Edaline whispered. Even if Sophie knew what to say in response, she was suddenly too choked up. Deciding that actions spoke louder than words, she squeezed tighter.